Sunday, 23 November 2008

APRIL 2008Antique Markets

ANTIQUE MARKETS

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At the antique market yesterday

we saw lots of statues from the Cultural Revolution

there were 9 Chinese opera's that were permitted during the cultural revolution

and most of the statues are of these Operas

or statues of Mao with peasant workers

a child affectionately holds Mao's hand like he is her father, her saviour

Mao standing amongst ethnic minority Children

or people holding up the little red book
excited passing on the teachings of Mao to others


my friend said that high school students from all over the country
all stood in Tianamen square and told that it was legal to destroy
the ancient stuff, the old stuff


I said to my friend "and you think that is a good thing?"

(because I know my friend loves Mao and thinks the cultural revolution is his finest achievement)


he said "it is hard to say whether it is good or bad"


anyway at the time it was a great honor to have your son join the army


other things at the market

those tiny little hand painted glass bottles (snuff bottles)

buddhas

buddha's hand


old wooden things

paintings from Ming and Qin dynasty

god of war

god of longevity, god of high ranking, god of money

porcelain etc



again the Mao stuff is so cartoony
so beautiful
yet so much like a cartoon
it helped me forget he was a real person
I have to think of his memorial museum (corpse)
to remember the reality

such a grave difference between the corpse
and the cartoon like images

I notice there was a poster of Mao on the ground being sold
someone had put a weight on it so it would not blow away
it was covering Maos head (inadvertantly)
I said "oh! that is really disrespectful"
my friend said "yes, during the cultural revolution he would not have been able to do that"

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